06.17.07
Posted in Miscellaneous, Events, Do Something...Get Active! at 11:29 am by Shhh....
Asalamu alikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
*** Reminder ***
Help serve those in need this Monday at a soup kitchen in Washington, DC. To join, please meet in the front office of Al-Huda School on Monday, 6/18 at 3:45pm. We can carpool from Al-Huda School.
Email info@LearnAboutIslam.org or call 301-982-9463 for more info.
Wassalaamu alikum,
–
The Islamic Information Center
Dar-us-Salaam
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College Park, MD 20740
Ph: 301-982-9463 | Fx: 301-982-9849
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Posted in Pearls of Wisdom at 12:53 am by Shhh....
B i s m i l l a a h i r R a h m a a n i r R a h e e m
إن لله وإنا إليه راجعون
Innaa Lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji’oon
Farshy Al-Turab
by Meshary Alrada
A thought provoking Islamic nasheed about death
ARABIC VERSION
Download and Video
DDPF
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=Ol6h9ninYE8
IN ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUB-TITLES
Download and Video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1972745692772555174
ENGLISH VERSION
‘Last Breath’
Download and Video
Uploaded by Muhammad Rizly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6rEVWJUtM
THE LYRICS IN ENGLISH
Dust is my bed, embraces me and it’s my cover now
The sand surrounds me even behind my back
And the grave tells a dankness of my affliction
And the brightness draws a line ……..
Where is my family’s love? They sold my loyalty!
And where is my group of friends? They left my brotherhood!
Where is the bliss of money? It’s behind my back now
And my name (reputation) where is it shine between praises
This is my end and this is my bed.
And love farewells its longing and my elegizing cried
And the tears went dry after crying
And the universe became narrow and so is my space
And the grave became my ground and sky
This is my end and this is my bed.
Fear fills my estrangement and sadness is my illness
I expect firmness and I swear it’s my cure
And to Allaah I pray faithfully, You are my hope
Allaah! I desire heaven, to find bliss there.
And to Allaah I pray faithfully, You are my hope
Allaah! I desire heaven, to find bliss there.
THE LYRICS IN ARABIC
فرشي التراب يضمني وهو غطائي
حولي الرمال تلفني بل من ورائي
واللحد يحكي ظلمة فيها ابتلائي
والنور خط كتابه أنسى لقائي
والأهل اين حنانهم باعوا وفائي
والصحب اين جموعهم تركوا اخائي
والمال اين هناءه صار ورائي
والاسم اين بريقه بين الثناءِ
هذي نهاية حالي فرشي الترابِ
والحب ودّع شوقه وبكى رثائي
والدمع جف مسيره بعد البكاء
والكون ضاق بوسعه ضاقت فضائي
فاللحد صار بجثتي أرضي سمائي
هذي نهاية حالي فرشي الترابِ
والخوف يملأ غربتي والحزن دائي
أرجو الثبات وإنه قسما دوائي
والرب أدعو مخلصا أنت رجائي
أبغي إلهي جنة فيها هنائي
LESSONS FROM DEATH
LIFE slips away second by second. Are you aware that every day brings you closer to death or that death is as close to you as it is to other people?
We are told in the Qur`aan: “Every soul shall have a taste death in the end. To Us you shall be brought back. (Al`Ankabut 29:57).
Everyone on this earth is destined to die. All nations that thrived in one time or another throughout history came to an end. Today, we hardly come across the traces of many of these people who passed away. Those currently living and those who will ever live will also face death on a predestined day. Despite this fact, people tend to see death as an unlikely incident.
Think of a baby who has just opened its eyes to the world and a man who is about to take in his last breath. Neither had influence on their birth or death whatsoever. Only God possesses the power to inspire the breath of life or to take it away.
All human beings will live until a certain day and then die. In the Qur`aan, Allaah gives an account of the attitude commonly shown toward death in the following verse.
“Say (to them): “Verily, the death from which you flee, will truly overtake you: then you will be sent back to (Allaah) the All-Knower of the unseen and the seen, and He will tell you (the truth of) what you did.” (Al Jumu`ah 62:8)
The majority of people avoid thinking about death. In the rapid flow of daily events, people usually occupy themselves with totally different subjects: what college to enroll in, which company to work for, what color of clothing to wear next morning, what to cook for supper, etc.
These are the kinds of major issues that we usually consider. Life is perceived as a routine process of such minor matters. Attempts to talk about death are always interrupted by those who do not feel comfortable hearing about it.
Assuming death will come only when people grow older, they do not want to concern themselves with such an unpleasant subject. Yet it should be kept in mind that living for even one further hour is never guaranteed. Everyday, people witness the deaths of other people around them but think little about the day when others will witness their own death. People never suppose that such an end is awaiting them!
Nevertheless, when death comes to man, all the “realities” of life suddenly vanish. No reminder of the “good old days” endures in this world.
Think of everything that you are able to do right now: You can blink your eyes, move your body, speak, laugh; all these are functions of your body. Now think about the state and shape your body will assume after your death.
From the moment you breathe for the last time, you will become nothing but a “heap of flesh”. Your body, silent and motionless, will be carried to the morgue. There, it will be washed for the last time. Wrapped in a shroud, your corpse will be carried in a coffin to the graveyard. Once your remains are in the grave, soil will cover you.
This is the end of your story. From now on, you are simply one of the names represented in the graveyard by a stone.
During the first months or years, your grave will be visited frequently. As time passes, fewer people will come. Decades later, there will be no one.
Meanwhile, your immediate family members will experience a different aspect of your death. At home, your room and bed will be empty. After the funeral, little of what belongs to you will be kept at home: Most of your clothes, shoes, etc, will be given to those who need them. Your file at the public registration office will be deleted or archived. During the first years, some will mourn you. Yet, time will work against the memories you left behind. Four or five decades later, there will remain only a few who remember you. Before long, new generations will come and none of your generation will exist any longer on earth. Whether you are remembered or not will be worthless to you.
While all this is taking place in the world, the corpse under the soil will go through a rapid process of decay. Soon after you are placed in the grave, the bacteria and insects proliferating in the corpse due to the absence of oxygen will start to function.
The gasses released from these organisms will inflate the body, starting from the abdomen, altering its shape and appearance. Bloody froth will pop out the mouth and nose due to the pressure of gasses on the diaphragm. As corruption proceeds, body hair, nails, soles, and palms will fall off. Accompanying this outer alteration in the body, internal organs such as the lungs, heart, and liver will also decay. In the meantime, the most horrible scene takes place in the abdomen, where the skin can no longer bear the pressure of gasses and suddenly bursts, spreading an unendurably disgusting smell. Starting from the skull, muscles will detach from their particular places. Skin and soft tissues will completely disintegrate. The brain will decay and start looking like clay. This process will go on until the whole body is reduced to a skeleton.
There is no chance of going back to the old life again. Gathering around the supper table with family members, socializing, or having an honorable job will never again be possible.
In short, the “heap of flesh and bones” to which we assign an identity faces a quite nasty end. On the other hand, you – or rather, your soul – will leave this body as soon as you breathe your last. The remainder of you – your body – will become part of the soil.
Yes, but what is the reason for all these things happening?
If Allaah willed, the body would never have decayed in such a way. That it does so actually carries a very important inner message in itself.
The tremendous end awaiting man should make him acknowledge that he is not a body himself, but a soul “encased” within a body. In other words, man has to acknowledge that he has an existence beyond his body.
Furthermore, man should understand the death of his body which he tries to possess as if he is to remain eternally in this temporal world. However, this body, which he deems so important, will decay and become worm-eaten one day and finally be reduced to a skeleton. That day might be very soon.
Despite all these facts, people’s mental process is inclined to disregard what they do not like or want. They are even inclined to deny the existence of things they avoid confronting. This tendency seems to be most apparent when death is the issue. Only a funeral or the sudden death of an immediate family member brings this reality to mind. Almost all of us see death far from ourselves. The assumption is that those who die while sleeping or in an accident are different people, and what they face will never befall us! Everybody thinks it is too early to die and that there are always years ahead to live.
Yet most probably, people who die on the way to school or hurrying to attend a business meeting shared the same thought. They probably never thought that the next day’s newspapers would publish news of their deaths. It is entirely possible that, as you read these lines, you still do not expect to die soon after you have finished them or even entertain the possibility that it might happen.
Probably you feel that it is too early to die because there are many things to accomplish. However, this is just an avoidance of death and these are only vain endeavors to escape it:
Say (O Muhammad, peace be upon him to these hypocrites who ask your permission to run away from you): “Flight will not avail you if you flee from death or killing; and then you will enjoy no more than a brief respite!” (Al Ahzaab 33:16)
Man who is created alone should be aware that he will also die alone. Yet during his life, he lives almost addicted to possessions. His sole purpose in life becomes to possess more. Yet, people cannot take their goods with them to the grave. The body is buried, wrapped in a shroud made from the cheapest of fabrics. The body comes into this world alone and departs from it in the same way. The only asset people can take with them when they die is their belief or disbelief.
Harun Yahya
http://www.i-mag.org/content/view/141/40/
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06.16.07
Posted in Pearls of Wisdom at 12:16 am by Shhh....
and the wife’s situation
Question:
I am married to a religious morale man (as it seems to me and to others). The problem: after using the internet, he started sharing in chat rooms and “forums” claiming that it is for da’wah reasons and to ease it for Muslims. Then it started becoming more than just helping, they started asking about personal matters and how does he feel. It even developed more than this as they started calling him on his mobile and sending all types of text messages. Then he started travelling to meet men and women and talk to them so easily, he sits with them and discusses Islamic and other matters.
I talked to him several times about this, but he never listened, he started even hiding some matters from me claiming it is his personal life. When I said to him that it is not permissible for him to talk to women about personal matters, he says that scholars are allowed to do this. He used to say to me to pay attention to family and leave him alone.
When I discussed this matter with him he said that it is normal but Saudi society is backward and does not understand the value of having a dialogue with the other, and that this society will accept this civility one day like it accepted satellite TV.
Recently he knew a woman through the internet. He helped her and started talking to her continuously. Then he travelled to her country and met her husband’s friend. They sat all together and discussed many matters. Then he thought that the solution for this woman’s problem is to marry her. Then he offered to marry her, and told me that he is going to marry her after he came back to Saudi. Now he is trying to get a permission to marry her even if this will cost him money.
Now the whole responsibility of bringing up our children is on me (which I have always carried). The other problem is that he is busy most of the time by work and study, he is rarely at home. When I discuss this matter with him he says that the Salaf used to leave their homes for years, and that the responsibility of the children is on the wife. And when I open the matter of the other wife and that she will make him even busier, he says: “no, I will manage my time and give my full time to my wives and children” I honestly doubt he will do what he says. I have not neglected my husband’s rights, and I have always looked after my looks for him. And I always look after my children as well. I do not like arguing, I have trusted him, and I have not ever imagined that this matter will be all his concern. When I say this to him he says that it is only Allah who will judge him.
Please help me what shall I do?.
Answer:
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
The shaytaan has ways in which he tricks the common people, and other means by which he tricks the elite of the people such as scholars, daa’iyahs (those who call people to Islam) and those who are devoted to worship. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) spoke the truth when he said: “There is no one among you but Allaah has appointed a companion for him from among the jinn.” They said: Even you, O Messenger of Allaah? He said: “Even me, but Allaah helped me with him and he became Muslim, so he only tells me to do good.”
Narrated by Muslim (2814).
Thus the accursed one reaches every target, through the most appropriate door. He makes his deeds appear attractive until the person starts thinking that he is doing the right thing, and he keeps doing that until he makes him fall into sin and evil.
If these elite understood the laws of Allaah they would have realized what they are doing. Allaah has forbidden us to follow the footsteps of the Shaytaan, and He did not forbid us to follow the shaytaan directly! Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“O you who believe! Follow not the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan). And whosoever follows the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan), then, verily, he commands Al‑Fahsha’ [i.e. to commit indecency (illegal sexual intercourse)], and Al‑Munkar [disbelief and polytheism (i.e. to do evil and wicked deeds; and to speak or to do what is forbidden in Islam)]”
[al-Noor 24:21]
“and follow not the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan). Verily, he is to you an open enemy”
[al-Baqarah 2:168, 208; al-An’aam 6:142]
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Sa’di (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
The footsteps of the shaytaan include all sins that have to do with the heart, tongue and body. By His wisdom, Allaah has explained the ruling which is the prohibition on following the footsteps of the shaytaan. The wisdom behind that is so as to avoid the evil result of the thing that is prohibited. So He says “whosoever follows the footsteps of Shaytaan (Satan), then, verily, he” meaning the shaytaan, “commands Al‑Fahsha’” i.e., that which reason and religion regards as abhorrent, of major sins and the inclination of some towards them, “and Al‑Munkar”, which is that which reason rejects and does not accept. The sins which are the footsteps of the shaytaan are part of that. So Allaah forbids them to His slaves as a blessing from Him so that they might be grateful to Him and remember Him, because that is a protection for them from the contamination of evil. It is by His kindness towards them that He forbade them to do those things, as He forbade them to eat lethal poison and so on.
Tafseer al-Sa’di (p. 563).
Our Lord has forbidden us to approach zina, but He did not forbid zina directly! Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And come not near to unlawful sex. Verily, it is a Faahishah (i.e. anything that transgresses its limits: a great sin, and an evil way that leads one to hell unless Allaah Forgives him)”
[al-Isra’ 17:32]
When the shaytaan wants to make the elite of the people fall into sin, he comes to them through the door of obedience, so he starts by encouraging the man to take care of widows and poor women, and things start to develop. So he starts by taking care of those women from a distance, then he keeps drawing closer by speaking, then looking, then sitting with them and talking to them, until he begins to like them, then the consequences of that are not good.
He has other means too, such as calling people to Allaah! So he encourages a person to give general advice to the Muslims, then he starts to focus his da’wah on some people, then he does not differentiate between male and female, then he starts to consult with women by modest talk, then with personal questions, then joking, and more correspondence, then talking on the phone, then phone calls and photographs, then meeting, then the consequences of that are not good. All of these are ways of following the footsteps of the shaytaan which Allaah has forbidden us to do.
All of that is approaching the sacred limits of Allaah which Allaah has forbidden us to approach, but the shaytaan makes his deeds attractive to a person and makes him think that he is calling people to Allaah, and that this will benefit the Muslims, or teach the ignorant, or relieve distress, and he keeps making it attractive to him until he makes him commit a major sin.
We are sad to learn of brothers and sisters whom we know to be ambitious and energetic people who strive to do good, then they drift far away from Allaah and commit evils and sins. A huge fire may come from a small spark. They did not pay attention to their first steps on the path of sin, and they did not notice the change in their behaviour and attitude, and they did not notice how their faith had grown weak. All of these are signs that Allaah has made to alert the heedless and awaken the sleeper.
See also question no. 60269.
Secondly:
What has happened to your husband is that which we have mentioned above. The fitnah into which he has fallen is obvious, and his argument is flawed and incorrect, aimed at convincing himself that he has not done anything wrong. That includes:
1 – His hiding his actions from you, and claiming that it is his personal life. If he was doing something good and hoping for reward from Allaah, he would involve you in his da’wah and involve you in his dealings with women, at least. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told us that sin is “that which wavers in the heart and you hate people to find out about it,” and this is exactly what he is doing.
2 – His claim to justify his actions by saying that “Shaykhs do that and there is nothing wrong with it” is a slur against them. If the Shaykhs really concealed their actions as he is doing, then how could he know that they do what he is doing? Although Shaykhs speak to women and teach them in shar’i ways, not the way that he is doing, it is not correct for him to cite their actions as evidence, because he is not doing what they do, and they do not do what he does as he claims.
3 – The claim that “Saudi society is backward and does not understand the value of having a dialogue with the other” is one of the ways in which Iblees has tricked him. If it really was as he says, then why does he not let you speak to non-mahram men as he is doing with non-mahram women? Would he allow his daughter to speak to whoever she wants of men on the internet and in her daily life? If he allowed it in either case then he would be a duyooth (one who does not protect his womenfolk) who accepts such a weak characteristic for himself. If he would not allow it – and this is what we believe – then he is contradicting himself, because he has fallen into the backwardness that he accuses Saudi society of.
4 – His claim that among the Salaf were some who stayed away from their homes for years is true, but they were away in order to seek knowledge, or engage in jihad, not to pursue women and fulfil corrupt desires.
5 – His claim that the woman is the one who takes care of raising the children is false; rather the responsibility is shared between the father and the mother. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) regarded the father as the “shepherd” of his family and responsible for his flock: “A man is the shepherd of his household and is responsible for his flock” So what will he say to his Lord when He asks him about his flock?
6 – He says that Allaah will judge him. Yes (that is true), but it is a judgement that will result in reward and punishment, and there is a reckoning in this world for his deeds. He must take stock of himself first, and he should accept the judgement of others on his deeds, for he is a slave of Allaah, and he is a husband and a father. He has shar’i responsibilities and worldly responsibilities to which he must pay attention, and accept the judgements of others.
By means of this strange logic – that Allaah will judge him – your husband is seeking to destroy one of the greatest principles of Islam, which is that “religion is sincerity” as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, and he wants to cancel out the command to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil.
“The believers, men and women, are Awliyaa’ (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another; they enjoin (on the people) Al‑Ma‘roof (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do), and forbid (people) from Al‑Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden)”
[al-Tawbah 9:71]
7 – His telling you to take care of the family and leave him to his own business is an abandonment of the way of the pious.
“Verily, those who are Al-Muttaqoon (the pious), when an evil thought comes to them from Shaytaan (Satan), they remember (Allaah), and (indeed) they then see (aright)”
[al-A’raaf 7:201]
He has abandoned the best of speech, which is the remembrance of Allaah, may He be glorified and exalted, and has rejected your advice and forbidden you to advise him.
“The most beloved of speech to Allaah is for a person to say ‘Subhaanaka Allaahumma wa bi hamdika wa tabaaraka ismuka wa ta’aala jadduka wa laa ilaaha ghayruka (Glory and praise be to You, O Allaah, blessed be Your name, exalted be Your majesty and there is no god but You).’ And the most hated of speech to Allaah is when one man says to another, ‘Fear Allaah,’ and he answers by saying ‘Mind your own business.”” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah.
Thirdly:
What we advise you to do is:
1 – Keep on advising him and reminding him, but do that in good ways, with strong proof. Remind of the days when he was righteous and warn him against a bad end. Tell him that Allaah may test him with regard to his honour as he is doing to other people’s honour. The proverb says says: “If a man transgresses against the honour of his brother, the ‘awrahs of his sons will be transgressed against.”
2 – Say a lot of du’aa’ for him; seek out the best times such as the last third of the night, and the best situations, such as when prostrating, and say a lot of du’aa’ for him then.
3 – There is nothing wrong with telling some of his brothers in faith who are religiously committed and of good character, and whom you trust and respect. But you should not do that directly or describe his actions clearly, rather it may be done by telling this trustworthy person that his friend is no longer righteous and has started to change, and other general phrases.
4 – We think that if you help him to take a second wife, that may distract him from seeking out women and wasting his time in things that are of no benefit. This (second) marriage may extinguish his desire and bring him back to his religious commitment and to his senses. We do not think that you should try to stop him if he is determined to do this. Tell him that you are agreeing to the second marriage because it is permissible, and you are objecting to his other actions because they are haraam.
We ask Allaah to make things easy for you and to relieve your distress, and to guide him and set his affairs straight.
And Allaah is the source of strength.
Islam Q&A
http://www.islamqa.com/index.php?ref=98107&ln=eng
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06.15.07
Posted in Miscellaneous at 8:47 pm by Shhh....
WHITE BLIND
Color-Conscious, White-Blind
Tim Wise
In a 1984 interview, “ex”-Klansman, David Duke explained: “You know, you really can’t talk about the crime problem unless you talk about the race problem…Blacks are much closer to the jungle than European people…” Six years later, as Duke ran for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, a supporter told a local paper: “Once you get rid of all the niggers, you get rid of all the crime.” Although one might wish to dismiss such racist invective as the ranting of extremists, it would be only four years later—in fall of 1994—that Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein’s The Bell Curve would hit bookstores, becoming a best-seller within weeks.
No “extremists” these, Murray and Herrnstein were viewed as legitimate social scientists, despite the fact that their 552-page tome was little more than a heavily footnoted, academic-sounding “fuck you” to people of color; a recapitulation of the argument that has always informed racist movements: namely, that there’s something wrong with those people—they’re criminogenic, lacking in brain capacity, and basically an overall genetic mess.
For those uncomfortable with Murray and Herrnstein’s resurrection of so-called racial science, owing as it does to such glorious traditions as social Darwinism, eugenic sterilization, and the Third Reich, never fear, 1995 would bring yet another volume intended to keep the darkies in their place—this time dressed up in the language of cultural defect. And so we had Dinesh D’Souza’s The End of Racism, which explains that the real problem with the swarthier types is that their families, values, and behaviors are dysfunctional and culturally inferior. Their DNA is fine; unfortunately they’ve chosen to act irresponsibly, aided by welfare programs which have rewarded their pathology and prevented them from “acting white,” which according to D’Souza is the only sure route to success. Well, he should know.
So in the course of only a few short years, comments about the pathology of people of color generally, and African Americans in particular, have gone from the margins of political discourse to the center. Discussions of crime have become increasingly racialized and our dialogue on race has become increasingly criminalized, such that deviance is now seen by many as synonymous with melanin or Black culture. Meanwhile whites—no matter how criminal or “deviant” our behaviors may be—are allowed the privilege of individualization. We’re allowed to be “just bad persons,” unlike non-whites who come to be seen collectively as “bad people.”
Mainstream media contributes to this process in myriad ways; from news clips showing Black men being taken to jail, to the headline in my local paper concerning a newly-released study on “injurious behavior” among teenagers, which read: “White teens more likely hurt selves; minorities more a threat to others.” Oh really? Go tell that to the victims of the white kids who shot up their schools in Pearl, Mississippi, Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Oregon. I’m sure they’ll be glad to know that Kip Kinkel was only a threat to himself.
Or for that matter, what about Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, or Jeffrey Dahmer? I guess white folks only become a danger to others once they’re adults. Or more likely, their race remains invisible, seen as irrelevant to their actions, even while lawbreakers of color are made to represent their larger communities.
Consider that after the Oregon shooting, “experts” tried to figure out “what went wrong,” with Master Kinkel, noting similarities between his killing spree and those of his predecessors: well, all the similarities except one. Kinkel, like the others was a boy, it was noted. Kinkel, like the others used a gun. Kinkel, like the others talked often about violence. Hmmm…Anything else, perhaps? While we can rest assured these kids would have been “raced” had they come from Black “ghetto matriarchs” in the ‘hood, it was as if no one could see the most obvious common characteristic among them: their white skin. It gives new meaning to the term “colorblind.”
Of course this kind of vision defect is typical. After all, we hear a lot about “Black crime,” but nothing about “white crime” as such, only “white collar crime,” although usually the collar isn’t the only thing lacking color. We hear of “Black-on-Black” violence in American cities or African nations, but nothing of “white-on-white violence,” even in Bosnia where the practice has become routine. In fact, I recently did a Yahoo internet search, finding only 217 entries for “white crime,” (most all of them dealing with the pale collar variety), while finding 973 entries under “Black crime”—interesting considering that the majority of crimes are committed by the majority of the population, which in the U.S. is still Caucasian. Similarly, “Black-on-Black crime” netted 559 entries, compared to only 17 for “white-on-white crime”
Nowhere is the de-racing of white violence more blatant than in discussions of mass civil disturbances, or what less sanguine commentators might call riots. Consider a November, 1996 USA Today article concerning a recent study at Northeastern University, which found that race had played a role in only half of all riots since 1994. In other words, when people of color rebelled against police brutality in St. Petersburg, race (but apparently not racism) was implicated, but when mainly white rock concert attendees or sports fans rioted in stadiums, race was irrelevant. The white rioters certainly had a race, but it didn’t matter. Thus, when riots erupted in the past few years at Colorado University, Iowa State University, Penn State, the Universities of Wisconsin at Whitewater and Oshkosh, Southern Illinois University, the University of Delaware, Michigan State, Washington State, Plymouth State, the University of Akron and the University of New Hampshire—all of them white events, and over nothing so serious as police brutality, but rather crackdowns on underage drinking or the results of a football game—no one asked what it was about white people that makes them burn cars and smash windows for the sake of $1 tequila shots.
It’s amazing how many crazy white people there are out there, none of whom feel the wrath of the racial pathology police as a result of their depravity. Killing parents is one of our specialties. So in 1994, a white guy in New York killed his mom for serving the wrong pizza; last year, a white 17 year old in Alabama killed his parents with an axe and sledgehammer; and in 1996, Rod Ferrell, leader of a “vampire cult” in Murray, Kentucky, bludgeoned another member’s parents to death, and along with the victims’ daughter, drank their blood so as to “cross over to the gates of hell.” Which brings me to rule number one for identifying the race of criminals you hear about. If the crime involved vampirism, Satan worship, or cannibalism, you can bet your ass the perp was white. Never fails. Every damned time. But you’ll never hear anyone ask what in the hell it is about white parents that makes their children want to cut off their heads and boil them in soup pots.
Ditto for infanticide. When Susan Smith drowned her boys in South Carolina, she had hundreds of people looking for a mythical Black male carjacker, because that’s what danger looks like. We should have known better, especially when you consider how many white folks off their kids: like Brian Peterson and Amy Grossberg, in Delaware, who dumped their newborn in the garbage; or the New Jersey girl at her prom who did the same in the school bathroom; or Brian Stewart, the white guy from St. Louis who injected his son with the AIDS virus to avoid paying child support; or the Pittsburgh father who bludgeoned his 5-year old twins to death when they couldn’t find their Power Ranger masks, and were late for day care; or the white babysitter outside Chicago who bound two kids with duct tape, before shooting them and turning the gun on himself. None of these folks’ race was offered as a possible factor in their crimes. No one is writing books about the genetic or white cultural causes of such behavior. In 1995, when a poor Latina killed her daughter in New York by smashing her head against a wall, every major news source in America covered the tragedy, and asked questions about her background, focusing on her “underclass” status: but when a white Arizona man the same month decapitated his youngest son in the desert because he was convinced the child was possessed by the devil, coverage was sparse, and mention of race or cultural background was nowhere to be found.
Or consider thrill killing, spree killing, and animal mutilation: three other white favorites that occur frequently but without racial identification of the persons involved. In October, 1997, a white male teen obsessed with Jeffrey Dahmer killed a 13-year old to “see what it feels like.” In New Jersey, a 15-year old white male killed an 11-year old selling candy door-to-door, but only after sexually assaulting him. Late last year, a white couple in California was arrested for “hunting women,” and torturing and mutilating them in the back of their van. At Indiana University, a white male burned four cats alive in a lab, while in Martin, Tennessee, two white teens set a duck on fire at the city’s recreational complex, and in Missouri, two white teens killed 23 cats for fun, prompting their white neighbors to say, not that there’s something wrong with white kids today, but rather, “boys will be boys.”
It makes one wonder, why aren’t the authorities doing something to stem the tide of white mayhem? Why no heightened surveillance and police presence in their neighborhoods? Why no crackdowns on immigration from Europe—particularly from the former Yugoslavia and Ireland: two places known to produce a particularly dangerous brand of white person? Why no demands for white politicians to disavow white deviance, the way Jesse Jackson, and any other Black figure in America is expected to speak out against Black crime and violence? And why no call for an immediate scientific inquiry to determine if in fact the crimes committed disproportionately by white folks might be genetically predetermined?
And by what standards are people of color the ones with fucked up values and behavior anyway? According to a 1994 study of college students, whites are far more likely to drink, they average three times as many drinks per week as Blacks, are 50% more likely to drink to the point of hangover, and about 70% more likely to drink to the point of vomiting. And yet, based on news coverage of college drinking, one would think boozing it up to be an equal opportunity pastime. In September of 1997, Time ran a feature story claiming, “colleges are among the nation’s most alcohol-drenched institutions. America’s 12 million undergraduates drink 4 billion cans of beer a year, and spend $446 on alcoholic beverages—more than they spend on soft drinks and textbooks combined.” Yet there was no mention of the racially uneven drinking habits on these “alcohol-drenched” campuses. Likewise for a recent Mother Jones article, about drinking among women: every woman in every photo getting wasted was white, and needless to say there aren’t many “underclass” women of color going to martini and cigar bars (featured in the piece); yet the whiteness of these budding alcoholics is glossed over by the writer, and probably most readers as well.
Or how about drunk driving? A pathological behavior which claims about 17,000 lives a year, and in which whites are twice as likely to engage as Blacks. According to government figures, white men drove drunk 85 million times in 1993, compared to 5.8 million times for Black men. And yet, officials continually downplay the racial inequity of drunk driving. James Fell, chief of Research and Evaluation at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says mentioning such stats is “counterproductive,” while Linda Algood, president of the Broward County, Florida chapter of MADD, has been quoted as saying: “A drunk driver is a drunk driver.” Funny how irrelevant race becomes when its visibility might reflect badly on members of the dominant majority.
The same is true for drug use. A 1996 study by the Department of Health and Human Services found that 74% of drug users are white, while only 14% are Black. There are 9.7 million whites using illegal drugs in the U.S., compared with 1.8 million Blacks. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, whites ages 12-21 are a third more likely than Blacks to have used illegal drugs; twice as likely to smoke pot regularly; and 160% more likely to have tried cocaine. But despite the white face of drug use, most law enforcement agencies’ criminal “profiles” of drug users, couriers, and pushers read like a description of urban youth of color. Of course, in The End of Racism, D’Souza explains that white drug abuse isn’t really a problem, because, they “can take advantage of expensive treatment programs,” whereas Black “crack addicts” can’t. In other words, whites are to be excused for their behavior, since the ability to pay your way out of trouble makes such pathology, well, less pathological.
As for the value systems of young Blacks compared to whites, surveys in 1994 found that Black high school seniors are 32% more likely than white seniors to say professional success and accomplishment are “extremely important;” equally likely to say having a good marriage and happy family life are extremely important; 26% more likely to say “making a contribution to society” is extremely important, and 75% more likely than white seniors to say “being a leader in their community” is extremely important. And since the folks critiquing “Black values” typically consider religion a “civilizing” institution, it should be noted that Black high school seniors are more likely than whites to attend religious services weekly, and almost twice as likely to say “religion plays a very important role” in their lives. Overall, Blacks spend about twice as many hours a week in religious activity as members of any other racial group.
If anything, “mainstream” American values—the kind typically inculcated by the dominant culture—seem to be particularly damaging to newcomers of color, whose behaviors were less pathological before coming here. According to recent studies, as immigrants from south of the border become more “Americanized” they dramatically increase their use of drugs and alcohol, as well as participation in “promiscuous” sexual activity. Perhaps Mexico should tighten their border-crossing policies to keep drunk and stoned white American sexual predators from coming to Tijuana, Cancun, and Cozumel, thereby contributing to the erosion of Mexican family values.
But the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the racialization of pathology is more than just a source of amusement. It is also a source of danger. By encouraging folks to believe that the threats to their property or themselves are Black and brown, this process encourages discrimination against non-whites, skews our criminal justice priorities, and diverts our attention from larger threats to our well being.
First, the racialization of danger encourages us—particularly whites—to view all criminality through the lens of Black and brown misconduct. We then reinforce this paradigm in our public and private conversations. Consider the way we talked about the Simi Valley trial of the white officers who beat Rodney King. What is it called today in popular discourse? The first Rodney King Trial. But Rodney King wasn’t on trial. White cops named Briseno, Koon and Powell were, but how many Americans even remember their names—the names of the criminals involved? So conditioned are we to criminalize Black men, that even the name we give to this trial reflects the process.
So conditioned is the media to presenting this kind of image, that during the L.A. riots, when Milwaukee reporters shot footage of a wealthy white female looter, loading designer dresses into her Mercedes, and justifying her actions by saying “everybody else is doing it,” their white producer refused to air the clip. Such imagery didn’t fit his conception of what the riots were about—crazy Black and brown people—and so the public’s understanding of race and danger remained unsullied.
This of course causes whites to see danger as Black even when it’s not. One study found that when whites are shown photos of a white and Black man arguing, they report that the Black man in the picture was holding the razor, when in fact the white man was doing so. Data from Portland indicates that white crime victims there misidentify their attackers as people of color nearly two-thirds of the time, making it more difficult to capture the real culprits.
By racializing danger, we lend legitimacy to what D’Souza calls “rational discrimination.” Thus, if certain types of people seem more dangerous, then it’s O.K. to refuse to pick up anyone of their race in your cab, or refuse to hire them, or keep them out of your neighborhood, or for the cops to rough them up a bit. Who cares, it’s rational. Far from being mere rhetorical excess by D’Souza, this logic has been utilized by a California judge to justify murder: in the 1991 trial of Soon Ja Du, charged with shooting and killing Black teen, Latasha Harlans, the judge handed down only a nominal fine, explaining that the event should be viewed in the context of Du’s family’s “history of being victimized and terrorized by gang members.” Not victimized and terrorized by Harlans, mind you, but by other people who looked like Harlans. One can only wonder how this kind of argument would hold up if used by a Black man to justify his killing a white cop because of his prior experiences with police brutality?
Of course, I say let’s take “rational discrimination” to its logical conclusion. Encourage all women to be lesbians, since they are more likely to be beaten or killed by male partners; Abolish the traditional family since statistics show the greatest risk of intimate violence occurs in families where decision-making is concentrated in the hands of one partner; and college professors should stop grading papers and tests, and just give all the women in the class one letter grade higher than the men, since women tend to earn better grades in college anyway.
In all seriousness, though, the racialization of danger has dramatically skewed our criminal justice resources, while doing nothing to make us safe. In 1964, 65% of all prison admits were white, while only 35% were people of color. By 1991, these figures had reversed. Did whites decide collectively to stop committing crimes in the intervening years, while Black and brown folks went nuts? Or was something else at work? According to FBI data, the percentage of crimes committed by African Americans has remained steady over the past 18 years, while the number of Blacks in prison has tripled and their rates of incarceration have skyrocketed. Much of this increase stems from the way the war on drugs has been prosecuted. Despite the fact that Blacks are only 14% of drug users, they represent 35% of possession arrests, 55% of possession convictions, and 74% of those sent to prison for possession. How is the “drug crisis” to be solved by focusing attention on those least responsible for driving the demand side of the problem to begin with?
Similarly, by encouraging whites to fear Black folks, the prevailing discourse paints a highly unrealistic picture of danger, which leaves people less safe. Only 1.86% of Black men, and less than eight-tenths of one percent of all African Americans will commit a violent crime in a given year, and only a minuscule percentage of these will choose white victims. Only 17% of the attackers of whites in a given year are Black, while 75% are non-Hispanic whites. Yet, if we’re encouraged to avoid people of color, we let our guards down to the real sources of danger that confront us: lovers, spouses, family members or neighbors of our same race.
Even more significantly, the racialization of danger takes our eyes off the biggest threats to health and well being. White-collar crime costs the U.S. nearly $200 billion annually according to the Department of Justice; that’s eleven times the money and property stolen in all thefts combined, let alone “Black theft.” While 24,000 people are murdered each year, 56,000 die from occupational diseases, approximately 10,000 workers are killed on the job, and 1.8 million suffer serious, disabling injuries, in large part due to safety violations by their employers. Nonetheless, only two dozen companies have been prosecuted and only two defendants have done time for safety and health violations since the inception of OSHA. Last year, an employer in Michigan violated OSHA rules, causing the death of an employee, and received a sentence of a mandatory moment of silence before work each day for a year. Think about that the next time some politician talks about the need to get tough on lawlessness.
So here’s a modest proposal. From now on, when you hear someone talking about what a dangerous world we live in, fight the impulse to picture Colin Furgeson on the Long Island Expressway, or some random Crip or Blood toting a Tec-9. Instead picture Ford Motor Company, which gave us the Pintorch; picture the nuclear power industry, or your garden variety fossil fuel-burning power plant giving you or someone you know cancer as you read this; or R.J Reynolds; or the folks who gave us the Dalkon Shield. Then try and picture the heads of these companies and the colors of their skins. Not a Black one in the bunch, dear friends.
And the next time you pay to insure your valuables against theft from street criminals, most of whom you’ve been encouraged to believe have dark skin, ask yourself where’s your insurance against the theft you suffer as a taxpayer every time G.E., General Dynamics, Boeing, or some other defense contractor double-bills the government for doing shitty work on weapons the Pentagon says we don’t need anyway; or when white S&L bandits like Neil Bush take the nation for a $450 billion ride.
And the next time you hear about some flesh-eating, Satan-worshiping teenager who just pickled his grandma, you’ll know his race before you even see his face on the nightly news, and you’ll know that if he’d just spent a little more time in church with the Black folks, none of this might ever have had to happen.
Originally published in LIP, September/October, 1998
Correction: Colin Furgeson was on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), not the Expressway.
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Posted in Miscellaneous at 4:34 pm by Shhh....
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2007
CONTACT:
Melodee Ford
President/Founder
404-822-7035 (c)
404-460-7059 (o)
www.junioracademies.org
JUNIOR ACADEMIES, INC. TAKES ACTION AS MOTHER FACES 80 YEARS IN JAIL FOR EDUCATING HER CHILDREN
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you and you feed him for a lifetime”
Melodee Ford, President, American Idol Winner Ruben Studdard and Judge Glenda Hatchett during a fundraising event for Junior Academies Inc.
Jr. Board member Keenon Rush is the voice of the future at the JAI fundraiser
Judge Glenda Hatchett brings the audience to their feet as she endorses Junior Academies.
Atlanta, GA (BlackNews.com) - Two weeks ago, a Cobb County mother faced the possibility of 80 years in jail after being charged with 16 felony counts. The crime: she lied about where she lived, and sent her children to a school that was not in her assigned District.
Anyone reading this article has at some point and time done the same thing, or knows of someone who has lied about their address in order to attend a better school. What is so ironic is that more than likely, her ancestors were faced with the same crime and punishment during slavery. It is now 2007, and nothing has changed. Fortunately, a jury acquitted her of all charges. Americans in 2007 should not have to lie about an address in order to receive an equitable education for their children.
Melodee Ford, President of Junior Academies, Inc., reached out to offer the family space at the Rosa Parks Leadership Academy, the first of eighty-five private K-12 schools to open throughout seventeen states. Junior Academies schools are schools of choice, for families that have been underserved and seek a top notch education in a safe environment.
Junior Academies, Inc (JAI) was founded by Melodee Ford, an educator and administrator for thirty-four years in some of the more affluent and respected schools in the nation. In the year 2000, Ms. Ford was assigned to assist a new principal in a public charter school. Disheartened by the lack of equity education the children were receiving, Ms. Ford no longer felt entitled to return to the wonderful schools that provided all the possible resources and support, committed parents, and caring and nurturing educators. Not while there were children that looked like her being left behind in underserved schools.
Ms. Ford says that when she was a part of the private schools, many of the teachers of color would attend the annual People of Color Conference put on by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). She noticed that year after year, all of these fantastic educators would convene and share the same stories year after year, and ask the same question year after year, “Why don’t we have our own system of private schools?”
JAI, with the support of communities and business leaders, aims to break the cycle of inequity in the PreK-12 schools. They will create a positive legacy for children of color within their communities by establishing effective and affordable independent schools: schools that are committed and dedicated, schools that mirror our Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s), schools that produce quality students that become productive citizens, schools that are devoted to producing self assured, educated, articulate and confident Black men and women. The first of these outstanding schools will be the Rosa Parks Leadership Academy which opens in Lithonia, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta in September of 2007.
Rosa Parks once said, “The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest.”
Rosa Parks’ single act prompted the action of Blacks in the community to take action. That action led to the desegregation of the public transportation system.
The time is now for all underserved children to have access to optimal educational opportunities that will prepare them to emerge as outstanding leaders. The blueprint for Junior Academies, Inc. opens the door to achieving educational success.
“These eighty-five schools will only happen with the support of everyone,” says Ms. Ford. “I receive countless emails and phone calls from many different communities waiting for the schools to be established in their communities.”
Ms. Ford goes on to say, “We have got to get out of that free education mentality, in order to save our children. Free education is government education, and anything that the government gives you is always inferior to what one would buy with their own funds. We must take hold of our children’s education in order to change the path they are now headed. ”
“Our ancestors took action in so many movements,” continues Ms. Ford. “We need to draw on the strength of our ancestors and stop talking about what some public school systems are not providing for our children; they are not going to get any better. They will put money into alternative schools, classify many students as special education, and suspend a great number of students of color. How long will it take for us to wake up and take action?”
The Rosa Parks Leadership Academy is the beginning of equity in education for the underserved. The schools are private schools and need funds in order to survive and provide quality resources and superior teachers. African Americans have the funds and the power to make a change. That change can and must happen now.
Americans have contributed to every possible cause one can imagine, here and around the world. However, the crisis of education for underserved children has been ignored. Action must come from every person of color. The time is now that all underserved children have access to optimal educational opportunities that will prepare them to emerge as outstanding leaders. The blueprint for Junior Academies, Inc. opens the door to achieving educational success.
Junior Academies, Inc is reaching out to every person of color, business owner, entertainer, athlete, and church to show our youth that we are their leaders and will begin now with changing and improving their quality of education. This is history in the making.
A CALL FOR ACTION:
This is a call to action for everyone who reads this article. Junior Academies, Inc., on behalf of every child who deserves the opportunity for an equitable education, and Rosa Parks who sat to stand for the rights we now enjoy, challenge the community to unify and support the opening of the eighty-five schools, beginning with The Rosa Parks Leadership Academy. We ask everyone to encourage friends, neighbors, co-workers, business leaders and churches to join in taking the education of our children in our own hands. It is going to take each and every one of us to GIVE. You can write your tax deductible contribution to Junior Academies, Inc and mail it to P. O. Box 98, Fayetteville, GA 30214 or you can go online to www.junioracademies.org and donate. Every donation of twenty-five dollars or more will be listed on the website’s partner/sponsor page. BE A PART OF HISTORY. GIVE!
-END-
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